


Tylenol and Orange Juice

by ermengarde



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 19:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3393761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ermengarde/pseuds/ermengarde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: 2. Ray/Mikey - Ray's sick with the flu/chickenpox/whatever. Mikey takes care of him. (Bonus points for cuddling).</p><p> </p><p>Ray has some kind of mutant flu and Mikey is totally going to make Ray get well though, even if he doesn't know how. It's, like, his job (even if they are in the middle of a tour and a bus is the <em>worst</em> kind of sickroom).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tylenol and Orange Juice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lucifuge5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucifuge5/gifts).



> Thanks to inlovewithnight for running the challenge and thank you to dapatty for looking it over for me <3

It is _definitely_ the label's fault, they green-lighted the stupid sound proofing on the stupid studio on the stupid bus and without the stupid sound proofing Mikey would have heard the coughing while they were trapped on the bus travelling from one end of the country to the other. If Mikey had _heard_ during the two days that they were trapped on the bus then he wouldn't have believed Ray's shitty excuses about non-existent dust in the venue, and he would have been watching closer for someone sneaking in Mucinex and basically he would have _noticed_ that Ray has some kind of mutant flu and he would have... something. Made Ray not play or made sure that he had a sweater for when he got off stage, hot and sweaty and prone to getting a chill. But Mikey _didn't_ notice and now Ray has some kind of advanced death plague and it is all Mikey's fault and he doesn't know what to _do_.

 

Mikey is totally going to make Ray get well though, even if he doesn't know how. It's, like, his job; Gerard can't go near Ray because (a)Gerard is a huge fucking baby when he gets sick and no one needs that and (b)Gerard is the only one of them that really, really, can't be replaced for a night if he catches something horrible, and anything bronchial is, like, total actual death for singers. Bob can't go near Ray because Bob says he hates the sick and no way is Mikey going to test that theory, and Frank can't go near anyone sick ever because Frank's immune system is made of jello. 

Now that he's not hiding in the stupid studio Mikey can hear Ray's awful, painful-sounding cough, and the little sad noises Ray keeps making after he blows his nose and it makes him cough worse, and Mikey can't _bear_ it.

 

Mikey brings Ray the last remaining pack of Kleenex, and pulls Ray's comforter higher over Ray's shoulder. Ray is huddled in his bunk, face to the wall, and he looks completely miserable. Even his hair looks lank and sad. "You need anything, Ray?"

"M'cold and m..," Ray trails off into a groan.

Mikey puts his hand on Ray's forehead - he doesn't really know what he's feeling for, but his mom always used to do it and... fuck. "Dude, you're burning up, you're, like, I could fry an egg on you."

Ray makes a really sad little noise. "Please don't."

Mikey tucks the comforter around Ray some more. "I'm not gonna Ray, I'll, um, like, yeah." Mikey nods and pulls the curtain around Ray's bunk. 

Mikey heads out to the lounge, where Bob and Frankie are playing some kind of game that involves hitting each other's knuckles and Gerard is doodling on the back of an envelope that he's picked up somewhere. Mikey hopes Gerard isn't stealing mail from the venues again, it's not like they're touring in a shitty van with no money, Gerard can afford to buy fucking paper.

"Guys." Mikey stands, holding on to thing with the coffee maker on it, waiting for them to pay attention. "Guys, Ray's really, really sick. I'm going to get the bus to find a Target or something and get him some stuff."

Bob nods. "We can get Frank some kind of anti-infection mask, too."

"Hey!" Frank shouts. 

"Shh." Mikey glares at Frank. "He's _sleeping_."

Frank makes a guilty face. "Sorry, but, like, I don't need a fucking mask."

Mikey rolls his eyes. "No, you don't, you just need to stay away from Ray. _All_ of you need to stay away." Mikey turns back around to head up to speak to the driver. "And fucking keep quiet."

 

As soon as they pull into the Target parking lot, Mikey bolts off of the bus. He figures the other guys will probably head over to the store as well, but Mikey's on a fucking mission and he's not going to get held up by Gerard's pondering over the need for more markers or Frankie's ranting about the lack of vegetarian, cheese-free snacks.

He stops into the pharmacy first, and picks up as much medicine as he thinks he can without getting flagged as a meth-head or some shit; he gets cough drops, and effervescent vitamins, and Vaporub, and these special booger wipe things that are supposed to moisturize Ray's nose, and Theraflu, and Tylenol, and Nyquil, and these no-rinse shampoo cap things that Mikey can't really work out but Ray's hair needs some love, and some other shit that looks like it might help, and then he heads over to homewares and gets the softest, fuzziest throw that he's ever seen, and then he finds an ice pack, and baby wipes for cleaning up, and _all_ of the fucking soup, a huge selection of juice and water, and some crackers for when Ray feels up to more solid food. 

It all comes to like, 120 bucks, but it's not like Mikey's hurting for cash, so fuck it. Ray is totally worth it. Right at the register there are some packs of men's summer pajamas on sale - just cheap shorts and shirts that you can practically see through, but Mikey's been sick before and he knows that it feels real nasty, stewing in your own sweat, but they don't have a hotel night for a couple of days, so Ray'll have to make do with baby wipes instead of, like, a shower or a fucking _bath_ unless he wants to risk getting hepatitis from a venue shower, so he picks up a couple of packs of the pajamas for Ray to change into. He figures they can just burn them when Ray's feeling better and in the meantime Ray'll have some nice clean fresh clothes. He almost picks up some for himself, clean clothes are not something that happens a lot on tour.

 

Ray is snoring when Mikey comes back onto the bus loaded down with bags, so Mikey just spreads the new throw over Ray and makes sure there's nowhere a draft can make its way through to Ray's skin and then pulls the curtain to Ray's bunk shut again. He sets up all the meds and soup on the spare bunk and pulls all of Gee's soda out of the fridge to make space for the juice. Mikey is all ready for when Ray wakes up, he has a choice of meds and things to make Ray feel more like a human and less like a troll. He rolls into his own bunk and settles down with an old Batman trade to wait.

He's almost drifting off to sleep when Ray starts coughing, loud and painful sounding. Mikey bangs his head, jumping out of his bunk, but he's done that so often at this point that he's pretty sure that his skull has actually gotten a little thicker to compensate.

He pulls back the curtain on Ray's bunk, fuck the rules about knocking and shit. "Hey," he puts a hand on Ray's forehead, it is still burning up. "How're you feeling, Ray?"

Ray shrugs and groans. 

Mikey nods. "Okay, I've got you some stuff to make you feel better, okay? I'm gonna get you some meds and some juice."

"Mmh hmm." Ray nods, but he doesn't turn over or anything. 

Mikey goes to get a glass of juice - orange and mango, because Ray's throat sounds too sore for unadulterated citrus - the Vicks chest rub and a couple of the strongest looking anti-flu tablets and heads back to his patient. 

"Okay, I just..." Mikey shoves the rub and tablets into his pocket and slides an arm under Ray's shoulder. "You just need to sit up a bit." Mikey pulls at Ray until Ray flops backwards into him with a groan and Mikey can help him slide up his bunk and lean on the wall behind his pillow.

Ray looks utterly miserable and it's like his neck isn't strong enough to hold up his head, because it flops sideways into Mikey's shoulder. 

Mikey pats Ray's shoulder and holds up the juice for Ray to sip. He's happy to hold the glass if Ray's too weak or whatever, but he's not entirely sure how he's going to get the tablets out of his pocket. Perhaps he can balance the glass on the side of the bunk once Ray's drunk, like, half of it. 

Ray does reach up and hold the glass himself after Mikey tries pouring the juice too quickly and Ray nearly gets orange and mango up his nose.

"You got that okay, Ray?" Mikey waits for Ray to pull the glass from his hand before he totally lets it go and reaches into his pocket for the tablets and holds them out for Ray to take. "The packet said these would bring your temperature down and stop you being, like, a snot monster."

Ray nods and tries to take both tablets at once, but that results in him making horrible, painful sounding swallowing noises and coughing some more and then he _still_ hasn't managed to swallow them, so he needs the rest of the juice to get them down. He looks _exhausted_. 

"Okay, I think you need to sleep, and, um, I have, like, this rub stuff" Mikey takes the empty glass back from Ray and wedges it in the edge of Bob's bunk, next door, and tries to pull Ray into a kind of hug to help him slide back down the bed a little. It's not very easy, Ray's kind of a lot solider than Mikey, and Mikey's not a weakling or anything but he's, like high dex, lower strength, and hauling around sick bandmates is not really his best skill. Eventually, though, Mikey helps Ray wiggle down until he's more comfortable.

Mikey pulls the Vicks from his pocket. "So, like, I need to rub this on your chest." Mikey opens the jar and sniffs it a little. "Wow, that's, I think this will help you breathe dude. It's like bring-you-back-from-the-dead strength."

"'K." Ray looks at him, totally unreadably.

Mikey dips his fingers in the goop, which feels cold and kind of disgusting, like a melted chapstick, and stretches out the neck of Ray's sleep shirt to spread it out on his neck and chest. 

Ray lets out a little noise and Mikey freezes. Maybe he pulled at Ray's chest hair with the goop or something, "Uh, are you okay?"

Ray nods, so Mikey finishes up rubbing the goop as gently as he can, then covers Ray up with the comforter and throw and tucks him in tight.

"Thank you." Ray whispers, then he closes his eyes as Mikey pulls the curtain shut again.

Mikey goes back to his bunk to wait for Ray needing him again.

 

By the time they arrive at the next venue, Ray's had four doses of meds, about three pints of juice and a mug of soup. He still looks like death warmed over, but when the maneuvering of the bus arriving at the venue wakes Mikey, he hears Ray moving around before he's even managed to untangle his legs from his comforter.

"Hey, Ray, get back to bed."

Ray has not managed to extract himself from the cocoon of comforter and throw that Mikey made for him, but he's freed an arm and pulled back the curtain.

"We've got a show." Ray protests, but he dissolves into coughing before he can make a real argument of it.

"We've got a fucking sound check. Dave will fucking do your set up and checks, that's why we _have_ techs. Stay in bed." Mikey lifts Ray's comforter and the throw and tucks them back in around Ray. "I'll get you some juice and some more meds, and then once I've finished at check I'll get you some soup and we can drug you up to get through the show, but fucking _sleep_ 'til I get back, 'k?"

Ray flops back on his pillow and waits for Mikey to bring him his juice.

 

By the time they're due to get out of the bus to head to the stage, Ray's temperature is almost normal, and he can manage with just sniffing to stop his nose running too badly, so Mikey reckons it's okay to let him play.

"But if you start to feel crappy, just head off stage and give your guitar to Dave, okay? And Gee - keep the speeches and the encore fucking short." Mikey pokes Gerard in the shoulder to make his point. He's made Ray bring the wrap with him and leave it just at stage left so he can wrap up in it as soon as they're back off stage so he can't get chilled too badly.

Gerard looks confused. "But, like, the kids need..."

" _Ray_ needs to get back to bed. The kids can watch your speeches on Youtube." Mikey kicks at Gerard's ankle, but mostly misses.

 

Gerard does manage to keep the speechifying down - and when he looks like he's going to launch into a monologue Frankie spins across the stage and knocks into him - and they keep it down to a two song encore, so it's about as short as a show can be without, like, actually cutting it to pieces. Ray still looks like someone's wrung him out by the time they make it off the stage, and Mikey bundles him into the throw, shouts at Dave to make sure their kit is all packed up okay, and pushes him back out to the bus before the kids have even started coming out of the venue doors.

"Bedtime." Mikey tries to push Ray in the direction of the bunks but Ray is kind of an immovable object when he wants to be.

Ray shakes his head. "M'not sleepy, I've in bed all day, I just, I want to like, sit and watch something?"

Mikey's pretty sure that Ray is actually exhausted and he'd totally sleep if he'd go to bed, but Mikey can make a nest on the couch in the studio and they can watch something on Ray's laptop until Ray falls asleep, and the studio is good and quiet so. "Yeah, okay. We can go to the studio and watch Gee's Next Gen dvds and I'll wash your hair."

 

Mikey makes Ray lie down on the couch so that he can try the no-rinse hair washing cap thing. He has to microwave it for, like, a minute to warm it up, and then it feels too hot, so he gives it to Ray to hold while he goes to snag a towel (Frankie's, because Frankie's totally the best at keeping shit clean and his towel looks pretty much the same color it started out as).

"I dunno Mikey." Ray looks at the packet, reading the instructions on the back. "I don't see how it can work."

Mikey makes Ray sit up a little bit so he can sit down for Ray to put his head on Mikey's towel-covered knee. 

"It can't make your hair any worse, right? And we've got a hotel tomorrow, so..." Mikey rips the packet open, he figures that Ray will probably give in if Mikey keeps going.

"Okay." Ray sounds a bit unsure, but he just shrugs and lets Mikey man-handle his head.

The cap is weird as fuck, like a sort of shower cap with the shower on the inside, but Mikey starts to massage Ray's hair and scalp through the outside of the cap, and Ray moans a little, so Mikey keeps on massaging all the way through _Encounter at Farpoint_.

Ray falls asleep before the episode is finished, and he doesn't wake up when Mikey finally pulls the cap off and wraps the towel around Ray's hair. The inside of the cap looks kind of dirty, but Mikey supposes that's the point and at least that's not in Ray's hair any more. He was going to maybe, like, blowdry Ray's hair, but that would totally wake him up, so Mikey just reaches over and turns up the little space heater thing that blows warm air out from the baseboards. Ray is kind of clean, and kind of getting better, and totally asleep and Mikey is going to keep on looking after him until he's 100% perfect Ray again.


End file.
